Reusse blog: Serious proposal for new U football rival

Donate To GopherHole
roybean said:
Actually, when the Big 10 came out with their division plan, most Badger fans were pissed that the Iowa game wasn't the protected one and were more than willing to give up the Minnesota game to get Iowa.
Click to expand...
And yet, way back in 2009, when SI polled college football fans, 77% of Badger fans named MN as their biggest rival. Iowa did manage 7.5%. I'm sure those number have skyrocketed in two years though.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/specials/fansurvey/2009/big10.html
 

roybean said:
Actually, when the Big 10 came out with their division plan, most Badger fans were pissed that the Iowa game wasn't the protected one and were more than willing to give up the Minnesota game to get Iowa.
Click to expand...

Dumb, dumb, dumb...
 


Headline - Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Date August 7th, 2019

Long-time Star-Tribune sports columnist and radio host Pat Reusse died today. According to the terms of his will, Reusse's tombstone will bear the inscription, "The Gophers Stink."
 

Congrats Kuato! Reusse just nominated you as the best Gopherholer for introducing him to Nicky Whelan! You got that going for you...which is nice!
 


Stan The Caddy said:
Congrats Kuato! Reusse just nominated you as the best Gopherholer for introducing him to Nicky Whelan! You got that going for you...which is nice!
Click to expand...

Heard that also though I thought he said 'the Gopherhole post of the year'.

Also thought his obituary was hilarious.
 


Looking at it objectively, it makes a lot of sense. If the Gophers' goal is to get to the B1G title game -- and that should be the goal; playing your natural rivals every year is fine but it should not take precedence over having a shot at a Rose Bowl -- who wouldn't want to play Indiana every year (as Studwell said)?

Michigan State got a great deal with its protected rival (Indiana). The Hoosiers aren't really a MSU rival, yet Sparty gets to play the Hoosiers every year (at least until the B1G goes to 9 games). If I could hand pick one B1G team to play every season, it would be IU (followed by the Gophers, then probably Purdue/Northwestern). Who wouldn't want to have an annual game vs. what unquestionably has been the worst program in the conference for quite some time?
 

SelectionSunday said:
The Hoosiers aren't really a MSU rival, yet Sparty gets to play the Hoosiers every year (at least until the B1G goes to 9 games).
Click to expand...
Not completely true...they've been playing for the Old Brass Spittoon since 1950. It's be a lopsided rivalry and I don't think either fan base has strong feelings but it's not a random pairing either.
 



Yes, I'm aware of the Old Brass Spitoon, and respectfully I don't think IU is anywhere near the top of the list of MSU's rivals. I agree with you that neither fan base likely has very strong feelings about it, for sure MSU doesn't. Once Penn State was paired with Nebraska, MSU didn't really have, per se, a true rival in the Leaders, so IU/Spitoon made the "next most sense" after that. Same thing with Iowa-Purdue. Not really rivals, but they had to be paired with somebody.

Michigan and Notre Dame (in that order) are MSU's biggies, and I'd put Penn State in there as a distant 3rd, even though PSU hasn't been around the B1G that long. And there are several others I'd place ahead of IU.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
And yet, way back in 2009, when SI polled college football fans, 77% of Badger fans named MN as their biggest rival. Iowa did manage 7.5%. I'm sure those number have skyrocketed in two years though.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/ncaa/specials/fansurvey/2009/big10.html
Click to expand...

Thanks Breakin'! That's great info!

It's very interesting to look at how the rivalries play out in conference. It was obviously pre-Nebraska, but 79% of our fans think Wisconsin's our biggest rival and 18% said Iowa. As stated, 77% of Wisconsin's fans said us, 9.3% said Michigan and 7.5% said Iowa. Iowa was kinda the 3rd wheel with 41% saying us and 31% saying Wisconsin.

The other rivalries are somewhat predictable: >96% of Mich & OSU fans said each other. PSU was a 3rd wheel with 83% saying OSU and 11% saying Mich. Mich St is also a 3rd wheel with 97% saying Mich.

Over 94% of both Indiana & Purdue say each other. And while 75% of NW fans say Illinois, Illinois fans appear to be the only school without 1 or 2 consensus rivals. 27% said Michigan, 24% NW, 24% Iowa, and 13% Indiana.

Regardless of whether MSU & Indiana play for something, (which I first learned on this thread today), they are clearly not rivals. Neither group of fans rates is one of the top 6 picks for biggest rival of the other.

Reusse is just trying to get a rise out of Holers. Thankfully, the B1G has at least a small amount of respect for the UW-UM rivalry as it was talked about when the discussion of divisional groupings was going on a year or two ago.

If Reusse is truly serious, then he's dumber than I thought - you'd have to re-shuffle these "rivalries" every 5 years based on competitiveness. As others have pointed out, you'd probably switch OSU to Nebraska and who knows what else. Michigan State has had 2-3 good years, but they fired their last coach when we fired Mason, and for the same reason.
 

Wisconsin-Minnesota is one of the best rivalries in the country. Why would you break that up? Yes, if this bad stretch goes 10, 15 games without a win, okay it would lose some luster. But I really don't think it's gonna be that long before things start to even up once again. I didn't think we'd have two straight over Iowa considering how we tailspinned last year, but here we are, a year later with two straight victories for the Pig.

If we HAVE to play Indiana in order to win a football game, then we're not in the discussion for winning the B1G anyway. If we're gonna suck, I'd rather at least have my rivalry games every year, than play Indiana and maybe finish 4-8 instead of 3-9.

What if Wisconsin falls off and IU rises up under Wilson? Do we change our minds and go back now cause Becky sucks again?
 

roybean said:
Actually, when the Big 10 came out with their division plan, most Badger fans were pissed that the Iowa game wasn't the protected one and were more than willing to give up the Minnesota game to get Iowa.
Click to expand...
You might want to raise a stink over at the UW Badgers official athletic website.
http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101206aaa.html

Without a doubt, the University of Wisconsin football teams biggest rival is Minnesota. Former players and coaches shared their memories of the annual battle for the Paul Bunyan Axe.
 



I don't even waste my time clicking on Reusse and all the bs out there.
 


roybean said:
Actually, when the Big 10 came out with their division plan, most Badger fans were pissed that the Iowa game wasn't the protected one and were more than willing to give up the Minnesota game to get Iowa.
Click to expand...

Please do not speak for "most Badger fans." Most fans wanted BOTH Minnesota and Iowa; if forced to choose one over the other, I believe a sizable majority would have picked the historic rivalry*. Even if Iowa would have had a majority, given the recent relative strengths of the programs, such a choice would have been made grudgingly. "More than willing" is flat out wrong.

*And I see by a previous post that SI readers agree.
 

Not to mention the fact that Holtz-McClean, Alvarez--Wacker, Bielema-Brewster all sold out the dome. Can't wait until those Indiana fans come here to spend all their money, or we can double up and send our Hockey and Football teams to Bloomington for a great weekend for the fans, etc.

As many have said, what a dumb idea.
 

Funny, how with relative ease almost every post in this thread makes more sense than Reusse.
 

I’ve better plan.

Why don’t we drive all Negative Nancy out of town? So, we all will get fresh air. I think Reusse should lead that Negative Nancy crowd.
 

Prado89 said:
Why don’t we drive all Negative Nancy out of town? So, we all will get fresh air. I think Reusse should lead that Negative Nancy crowd.
Click to expand...

I don't have a problem with negativity, but this column is just stupid. It demonstrates either an almost absolute lack of understanding of college football, or a willingness to ignore basic logic in the name of riling up people like us who will click on the link and talk about it. It's the worst kind of sports "journalism" out there. I actually find it kind of offensive, based on the absolute lack of personal/professional responsibility and honesty required to write this kind of drivel.
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom